Ducks’ frustration with the officiating grows

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‘It’s a frustrating time,” Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said speaking about NHL officiating this week. ‘As players, we’re not sure what penalties are and what they aren’t. As the ebbs and flows of the game (go), it’s hard to understand what’s going on all the time and maintaining what we want to do to compete.’ (Photo by Debora Robinson/NHLI via Getty Images)

TORONTO — On the surface, the gripes coming from a player about the officiating in a loss can come off as sour grapes. Team loses, plain and simple. Scoreboard says so. Get over it.

So when Ryan Getzlaf aired some of his thoughts Saturday following the Ducks’ loss to Montreal when it was a special teams game that revolved around 11 minor penalties, is that just someone moaning? Or should his words not be so summarily dismissed?

“It’s a frustrating time,” Getzlaf said. “As players, we’re not sure what penalties are and what they aren’t. As the ebbs and flows of the game (go), it’s hard to understand what’s going on all the time and maintaining what we want to do to compete.

“I didn’t feel like anybody was in danger at any point on the ice but somehow there was 10 penalties or whatever there was. That’s not hockey. And that’s not allowing players to play and be themselves and compete.”

One can dismiss a Ducks player on the basis that they ended Monday’s game against Toronto leading the NHL with 219 minor penalties. But whether it’s basic stuff or hits that skirt the line of legality, there seems to be a growing chorus that wonders what’s allowable and what isn’t. Or shouldn’t.

Andrew Cogliano said it’s hard not to factor that creeping into how they’re able to play on the ice.

“At some point you have to pay attention to what you’re really doing out there,” Cogliano said. “What is good and what’s going to be called and what might not be called. And you’ve got to be very careful. I feel like that’s a (frustrating) way of playing the game in terms of really being conscious out there.

“You always feel like you want to react when you’re checking and when you want someone’s stick. So when you’re consciously thinking about things, it makes the game tougher in my opinion.”

The latest example of the Ducks’ discontent came Monday when Nick Ritchie was called for slashing Leafs defenseman Roman Polak at the Toronto net. The penalty, which chafed at Coach Randy Carlyle, gave the Leafs momentum and Mitch Marner converted on it for a 3-3 tie.

“It’s stick on stick,” Carlyle said. “I don’t know how he could have determined it, but obviously he felt it was severe enough. It’s a questionable from our standpoint.

“Is it something because of the accidental contact with Perry’s skate and the goalie and everybody’s putting pressure on the individual to make a call and it doesn’t get made. … Ritchie did not slash him on the hands. He clearly tapped him on the stick.”

It seemed in line with what Getzlaf talked about Saturday. “You want to see two teams go at it and play hard and do their thing,” he said. “You got to let them play.”

In line with the NHL’s crackdown on slashing this season, Ducks center Ryan Kesler said he felt the team had a good meeting with a league official early in the year to go over how certain plays were going to be considered infractions.

His contention is it’s the Ducks’ job to not worry about bad calls and play to the rules the best way they can. And he said there’s no preconceived notion that they look at who the referees are in a given game and have to tailor their play to whether they call it tight or tend to give players more leeway.

“We have a reputation of a team that plays on the line,” Kesler continued. “That’s unfair. Maybe it’s a precedent that we have. I just don’t know. I think we got to look back in the mirror and put the onus on us, though.

“We can sit here and blame the refs and how they’re calling it. We just got to go and play and play our style. Obviously every game is called differently. You get different refs, different personalities. We got to recognize what’s being called on any given night. And for us, the sooner we can figure out, the better.”

It extends to hits that have been under review for supplemental discipline. Cogliano served a two-game suspension for one on the Kings’ Adrian Kempe which ended his consecutive games streak. Most recently, Nashville’s Filip Forsberg is serving a three-game ban for a hit on the Rangers’ Jimmy Vesey.

But Predators teammate Alexei Emelin did not receive anything for a questionable hit on Marc Staal in the same game. Others such as Calgary’s Mark Giordano or the Kings’ Dustin Brown and Kyle Clifford have only received fines or escaped additional punishment altogether.

“Some of the plays that haven’t have been worse hits and had the most head contact, for whatever reason there hasn’t been a suspension,” Cogliano said. “So I think when you hear that there’s a standard in the league and they’re trying to keep up the standard and they’re trying to be transparent and consistent, there’s no player that really believes that.

“You can ask any guy on any team. I think they’ll say the same thing. I’m not saying that because I was suspended. I think the more you see the more hits that are a suspension and not a suspension, I feel a gray area continues to get bigger.”

GIBSON IMPROVING

John Gibson skated and took shots in goal for the first time since being forced to leave last week’s game against Boston in the third period.

It is a step forward for the goalie but it isn’t clear if he’s progressed enough to become available for Tuesday’s game against Buffalo. Reto Berra has backed up Ryan Miller the last three games and Carlyle would only say that they’ll reassess their goaltending situation in the morning.

In Gibson’s case, Carlyle called it a “great sign” and added that “we think that he’s not far away here.”

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